Monday, May 19, 2014

An Experience In Cosmic Narcissism Part 3 - Mine and Rihanna’s Whakapapa

Via Aaron Tokona on Facebook, part 3 of 8 parts... he posted this with a photo of himself and Rihanna...

An Experience In Cosmic Narcissism Part 3- Mine and Rihanna’s Whakapapa

A personal account of working for ‘THE PHENOMENAL’
KIM.DOT.COM.ORG.NET.THE WORLD.THEUNIVERSE.AND.EVERYONE.IN.IT.co.nz

My Father Clifford Hirini Tokona and My Mother Pani Heniwai Herangi means i come from two line’s of proud and staunchly robust genealogy or what Maori proudly refer to as ‘Whakapapa’. On my dad’s side Tokona i hail from a Bay of Plenty known by the local radio station as BOP or referred to by my iwi (tribe) Ngai Te Rangi as Tauranga Moana. 

On my mum’s side i hail from what is referred to as a ‘Kingitanga’ movement established as a way to form a line of communication to the in coming movement we now refer to as colonisation. This proud iwi that makes me the kiwi i am today is known as Tainui or Ngati Maniapoto. All of this makes up the man i am today. As a child i grew up on both sides of my family’s, and both sides of my awesome and really hardcase whanau’s were really musical, and my cuzzie's Ria Hall and Tiki Taane are an awesome testament to that x

Life was tough for my Mum and Dad because they hailed from a generation before them that had to suffer some of the abuse of what the integration of colonisation and the threat to form a proud nation meant, which was my Grand parents on both side’s suffered the humiliation of being strapped on the hand’s just for speaking in the language of there native tongues Te Reo Maori. 

And even though that was sad and awful what was worst is what my parents had to endure which was a whole generation without its native tongue to speak proudly and feel proud about itself. This generation got lost and forgot who they were and where it’s strong and bountiful people came from. 

It’s so terribly sad and desperate what losing that kind of identity does to people because when you don't know who you are, where you come from and how strong and proud this can make you feel about yourself its easy to feel anger and resentment, blame and disempowered about this and easy to lose yourself in the mire of self abuse with help in the form of Drugs or Alcohol and lost in a life of Jail time. Or find yourself on the dole or the DPB, and the statistics are a testament to that…………………

In the mean time I'm running around with a madman in the form of a swiss german fulla who calls himself KIM DOT COM and actually within the deluded reality of this crazy Megalomanic character i was actually having lot’s of fun and getting very well paid for it in the process! 

Around this time i was writing another song that i was happy and keen to deliver having been signed by Warner Music again. I had delivered the first of my contractual commitments to the team at Warner Music in NZ of a song i wrote called ‘Sugar’ and through this whole time working with KDC was hearing in my hori brain the birth of another song which would be about an experience of working for a crazy narcissistic slave master. 

This song would go on to be called ‘Providence’. I rang my cuzzie Tiki for some help with the production of my song and flew into Tamaki Makaurau and picked up by cuzzie Tik and headed out to his studio in a beautiful place of a beautiful man that earn’s a living applying Moko’s with Ink to various body parts of keen and willing participants that gratefully pay ‘the bro’ for his artistic passion and trust him dearly with their skin!

Upon arrival it was awesome to see the bro rushing towards us at a frantic pace raving about the news that us 3 Maoris had a mission ahead of us that night to go to Rihanna’s gig at vector arena and to meet her and her entourage because this reining raving pop princess required a tattoo from what she considered one of the best tattoo artists in the world and she was bloody right about that indeed. 

Us 3 proud Maori men arrived at vector arena this night and upon entry into the building i was very grateful at that moment that i was not my bro Tiki Taane! As we proceeded to navigate our way to our seats the cuzzie Tik got on with the job of being who he was as he posed with many many of his adoring fan’s for pictures, and as the cuz just got on with his job of being just so F*&^cken Awesome at beautifully and gracefully taking pictures with the many fan’s who love him, i thought to myself ‘What a pain in the mick, i hope i never have to do that buzz’!!! 

We found our seats and enjoyed Rihanna’s little gig! I thought to myself ‘this girl can really sing. Awesome’. After the gig we were escorted backstage and preceded to wait a few hour’s for the sis to get her shit together. We were then shown into her backstage quarter’s where she greeted us with a hug and kiss and we had many laugh’s hanging out backstage for a couple hours with this very beautiful hardworking reining raving pop princess and her entourage. 

We arrived back at ‘the bro’s’ place and retired immediately and was up a few hours later and Tik and i started working on my next ‘ahoribuzz’ tune Providence.

Rihanna and her entourage turned up many hours later than agreed to which i thought was fine as she can do whatever she want’s she’s a pop-star! But our bro was by then pretty pissed off at the lack of respect shown and i supported him on that indeed. I don’t think Rihanna ever thought she’d ever hang out with 2 smiley and 1 pissed off set of Maoris ever! 

But Tik and i got on with the job of supporting our bro as he got on with his job of giving the sis a tattoo she wanted and would go on to later tattoo over because she decided to arrive many hours late and didn’t give herself the time to think about the choice’s she made of applying ink forever to her reining raving pop-star skin. I liked Rihanna she was choice and i felt she deserved what she worked so hard for and what she was really good at. And she probably thought that about me too because the bro played her heaps of my music via You Tube and when i entered the room at one stage between working with Tiki on my song in his studio, she looked at me and said “Your a Rock-Star” and to this i said to her “Cheers babe, thats quite funny coming from you!”

After many hours of pain and torture Rihanna went through to tattoo herself in the traditional ways of our Tipuna . Her and here entourage were about to depart. I had one little private moment with Rihanna which for me i thought was endearing as i looked into her pop-star eyes to bid her farewell. I gave her a kiss and a hug looked at her and said “Look after yourself out there sis” and she looked at me and said “You too Rock-Star!” 

I think people like Rihanna or her aunt Beyonce or our Lorde for that matter all have one thing in common. They all exist in the eye of an ever evolving storm, and within that storm these people sit calmly in the eye of it looking around them at a cyclone in the form of a circus, and from that place its probably quite easy to see who’s aware and apart of the kaos and who see’s the circus for what it is. 

And as Tiki and i left our bro and entered into a circus at Roundhead Studios that night to continue work on the album of a Narcissistic madman! It was easy for me to see between the lines of what is real and what is not.

And what does my Whakapapa have to do with Rihanna’s ? Well nothing except Rihanna comes from an little place called Bridgetown on a little Island called Barbados and from a people that too had it’s challenge’s with the in coming inevitability of Colonisation.

My Great Great aunt Princess Te Puea Herangi use to have a great big stick! And with her stick she would whack anyone around her that spoke in the Queen’s English and would say “Shut up and speak Te Reo Maori” Another relation of mine The Great Dame Whina Cooper would sometimes say to her many Mokopuna’s and wot not, “If you wanna get rid of Pakeha, Marry one” 

These two great women understood the inevitability ahead of a proud and great race of Maori people. Get on with the formation of the long long white cloud before us. ‘E tipu e rea mo nga ra o tou Ao…’ Grow and thrive as a child of your time…" 

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